Use Geofencing to Keep Drivers Safe

It’s pretty easy to add a home security system and protect your loved ones while they are at home. However, once they leave, you lose those levels of protection.

With geofencing, you don’t have to lose the protection and peace of mind you desire. Keeping your family members safe while they are driving has become much easier with vehicle tracking and location monitoring.

Tracking devices give you the ability to keep tabs on a teenage driver. You can keep an eye on where they are and receive alerts if your teenager crosses a boundary they are not allowed to cross. In addition, these tracking devices can be tied right into your security system.

What is Geofencing?

Geofencing is the practice of setting up geographic location boundaries through technology known as GPS or a global positioning system. You’ll be able to set boundaries for drivers with alerts sent directly to you if they cross those boundaries. This works well for families with teenage drivers and even for companies looking to keep tabs on employees while they are driving company vehicles.

Keeping Your Teenager Safe on the Roads

New drivers don’t have much experience and may not know how to deal with a breakdown or other issues on the road. It’s your job, as their parent, to do everything within your power to keep them safe. This includes vehicle tracking and location monitoring, but it also includes many other important rules of the road.

Did you know that the Governors Highway Safety Association reported that traffic deaths of teenagers went up 10% in 2015? This is a bit alarming, but you can take precautions to ensure your teenage driver doesn’t become a statistic.

A few of these tips will be pretty much common sense, but when it comes to teenagers, everything needs to be repeated.

No Drinking and Driving

Teenagers are not legally old enough to drink, but that doesn’t stop many of them. It’s important to speak with your teen drive about this as about 20% of the drivers involved in deadly accidents between the ages of 15 and 19 have been drinking.

Eliminate Driving Distractions

Texting, social media, calling and anything else distracting has to wait until the car is in park and the teenager has turned off the engine. The highest percentage of distracted driving accidents falls into the age bracket of 15 to 19. In fact, in 203, 330 people were killed by a distracted teenage driver, which also ruins the life of the teenager. It’s a pretty serious offense in most states.

Limit Passengers

Some states put a restriction in place limiting the number of passengers allowed in a vehicle for new drivers. However, as the parent, you should limit the number of passengers allowed to just one. This helps to ensure they are not distracted by friends doing things in the back seat or too many people trying to talk at once.

Seat Belts for Everybody in the Vehicle

Another common sense one that gets missed is buckling those seat belts. With teenagers, it’s necessary as 53% of those killed in an accident between the ages of 15 and 19 in 2014 were not buckled up.

Monitor the Vehicle’s Speed

Depending on the brand of vehicle, you may be able to install a monitoring system that will limit the speed the vehicle can go. In addition, this monitoring device can also control the volume of the radio and establish hours for curfew. With the right monitoring, you’ll be able to set up geofencing, which allows you to establish the area where your teenager is allowed to go.

The Honeywell Total Connect system offers a remote service for monitoring vehicle location and tracking your teenager when they are driving. It can be used with your tablet, computer or smartphone and alerts will be sent directly to you if your teenager leaves the area they are allowed to drive in.

Not only will monitoring help with everyday driving, but it will also help when a punishment has been handed down. Maybe you’ve limited the driving of your teenager to school and work only. If this is the case, you can set up geofencing to ensure they don’t go anywhere else without you receiving a notification. Call today to learn more: 973.335.3931

Plenty of Practice

While driving classes are great for teenage drivers, parents can also help by giving them more than just the basics. Even without a judge ordering it, signing your teenage driver up for defensive driving classes is always a good idea. Some will even teach evasive maneuvers, emergency braking and other types of emergency driven situations. They will learn on simulators, which makes it a safe way for your teenagers to get experience in live situations they could one day face on the road.

Practice what You Preach

Telling your teenager not to text and drive is a good start. However, you cannot be caught doing this in front of them, or at all. It’s very dangerous and becoming illegal in many states, anyway. As a parent, when you drive, you must practice what you preach. Your teenager will likely follow your example more than your words.

Why Limit Your Teenager’s Driving Radius?

You may think it’s a bit drastic or your teenage driver deserves more freedom than a vehicle tracking device allows. However, teenagers do stupid things and when they do those stupid things in a vehicle, it could get them killed. Gone are the days of driving a huge station wagon to the local grocery store and to school. Today’s teenage drivers are on highways, interstate and back country roads.

You don’t have to allow your 16-year-old to drive on the interstate or to drive on back country road. Start them off with just a small radius including school, their job, a few friends’ houses and home. Keep them close to home until they prove they can drive safe and obey your rules, along with the law. Then, expand the radius gradually until they turn 18.

Keeping your teenage driver safe is life or death. Add vehicle tracking and location monitoring to your vehicles to ensure they learn how to drive without it costing them dearly. Call today for a free consultation: 973.335.3931